Black Lives Matter co-founder grateful for public support

One of the founders of Black Lives Matter on Friday hailed mass public engagement in protests across the U.S. as a "historic moment," born out of rising anger about police brutality and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19. Opal Tometi told Sky News she believed that this time was different, due to the context of a "global pandemic that is wreaking havoc on all of our communities." She maintained that a multiracial coalition of people, "from all walks of life," were demanding a different kind of society. "I don't want to be part of a society that allows unarmed black people to be killed every single day by police," she said.

"And not only do I not want that, I don't want a society where people, thousands of people, can get sick and there is no true response." The recent wave of protests was sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even as he plead for air and stopped moving.